Lehigh Ready to Open Outdoor Season in the Sunshine State

Friday, March 16

Orlando, Fla.

All Day

Lehigh University

Black and Gold Challenge

Photo by: Don Paul

Lehigh Ready to Open Outdoor Season in the Sunshine State

3/15/2018 3:58:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Meet Information/Schedule | Live Results

ORLANDO, Fla. – Nearly one month after the conclusion of the indoor season, the Lehigh track and field teams have headed south to Florida to begin the 2018 outdoor season. The Mountain Hawks will begin their 14-meet outdoor campaign on Friday at the University of Central Florida's Black and Gold Challenge at the UCF Soccer and Track Complex.

Lehigh returns six All-Patriot League performers from last outdoor season, including five on the women's side with league champion Maura Henderson, who took gold in both the steeplechase and 5K last season. Clare Severe, Hanna Brosky and Brooke Schaeffer return from the second place 4x800 relay team, and Amanda Youngblood returns after a runner-up showing in the discus. On the men's side, senior Trevor Knowles returns as the three-time defending league decathlon champion.

Additionally, Lehigh returns five athletes on the women's side who earned third place finishes at the outdoor championships last year, which were hosted by Lehigh. Kaitlyn Toman set the school's outdoor pole vault record at last year's championships, and NCAA First Round qualifier Hannah Patrick finished third in the javelin. Ashleigh Crawford landed on the podium in the steeplechase, along with Laura Barnes in the 1500m and Youngblood in the shot put.

Overall, Lehigh's men took home fifth at the outdoor championships in 2017, while the women finished third. Lehigh had four NCAA qualifiers, with Henderson (steeplechase) and Patrick (javelin) each qualifying for the First Round prelims, and departed senior Lucas Warning earning Second Team All-America honors in the shot put and Courtney Avery (high jump) advancing to become the first-ever First Team All-American in school history in any sport.

During the recently completed 2017-18 indoor season, Lehigh finished fourth at the PL Championships, led by Knowles who became the first four-time heptathlon champion in league history. Knowles also added a second place finish in the 60m hurdles and Kyle Kirk was runner-up in the 800m. The women also picked up one title from the distance medley relay quartet of Schaeffer, Severe, Kristen Lavallee and Hannah Bonaguidi. The Brown and White will also look to keep the momentum rolling with the pole vault duo of Kaitlyn Toman and Madisyn Hawkins, both of whom passed the previous school record mark at the championship meet, with Toman finishing runner-up (3.95m) and Hawkins taking fifth (3.85m).

At this weekend's season opener, all field events will get underway at 11 a.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday. Friday's track events will take place in the evening beginning at 6:20 p.m. Saturday's track events will kick off at 11 a.m. and run throughout the afternoon before concluding with the 4x400 relays at 4:30 p.m.

A full schedule of events, as well and heat sheets and live results are available using the links at the top of this page.

Check back to Lehighsports.com after the conclusion of the meet on Saturday for a full recap.

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